"Where exactly are we going?" I asked Arav who silently led me through some of the lonely hallways of the palace.
"You'll know when we get there," he replied lightly, as we reached a large granite wall. I didn't know whether to be scared or curious.
He took hold of the fire torch that was welded onto the wall. He slightly pulled it as it moved forward a little, along with a small block of granite attached to it.
For a second I thought the torch would break and come off the wall. I was so focused on what Arav was doing that I jumped when the granite wall on my side moved.
The sound of rocks moving against each other lightly echoed through the hallway, revealing a dark passageway.
"Are we going to some sort of cult meeting?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Just be quiet and follow me," he took the fire torch and led us through the passageway. I felt slightly creeped out with the darkness and gloomy atmosphere that my thoughts began to take over my calmness. What's gonna happen? Where is Arav taking me? He couldn't possibly be taking me to kill me... right? I shook my head, stopping my mind from going down that train of thoughts.
After walking for a few minutes I started to hear a few voices. Arav made a sudden turn, causing me to nearly go face first into a wall. We reached a wooden door, which Arav opened with a light shove. I walked into the room, which had been lit by more fire torches.
Did they not have electricity at all?
My eyes focused on the two figures sitting on the benches laid out on the side of the walls.
"What are you two doing here? How did you even get here?" I asked, surprised to see Ramon and Lana. Both were dressed in traditional Indian clothing, Lana's dress a different colored version of what I wore.
Instead of looking at me, Ramon focused his gaze on Arav.
"Your sisters told us that something important had to be discussed and dragged us here, told us to wait and shut themselves in that room. They've been in there for like half an hour now!" Arav sighed and walked to another door that stood on the opposite side of the room.
He briefly knocked and opened the door.
He turned to us.
"Stay here, I'll only be gone for a few minutes," he turned around, letting out an exasperated side, walking in, closing the door behind him.
"That's what they said," Ramon grumbled. It was not that I realized that the voices could be heard in the other room.
I sat next to Lana looking at Ramon who seemed to have forgotten to comb his hair which looked like a bird's nest.
"Someone woke up at the wrong side of the bed today," I said teasingly.
"More like dragging me out of bed. I was tired! And they didn't even bother to knock, well I think they didn't knock." Ramon whined like a five year old.
I rolled my eyes and looked at Lana.
"What were you doing?" I asked her.
"Murdering google translate," Agni casually replied, walking through the now opened door.
Lana gave a sheepish smile.
"I was curious as to what the texts read, they were written in Hindi, Pali and Sanskrit and a couple other languages... so I was trying to translate them."
"Do you guys even have cellular service here?" Ramon asked.
"You'd be surprised but we actually do. This isn't the Stone Age. We're not completely out of touch with the modern world. We just choose to use natural resources to fulfill our basic needs," Agni replied.
"Sorry for keeping you guys here for so long, come in."
We followed her into the mysterious room. I looked around, half surprised to see the place. I expected some sort of dungeon type with torture devices but this.
To sum it all up, it looked like a Wizard's workshop.
"So we 'are' at some sort of cult workshop," Ramon replied.
"That's what I said!" I replied.
"Right!?" He said looking at me with an enthusiastic grin.
I felt Lana facepalm next to me.
Yup, we were definitely siblings.
"We're at my workshop of sorts. I don't know what to call it," Agni said as she closed the door behind her.
I looked at Arav who was concentrating a steely glare at Isha who didn't back down, rolling her eyes and sending back her own cold look of annoyance. Siblings rivalry?
"Before we continue... how are you feeling?" Agni addressed me.
"I'm feeling okay, surprisingly it's healed quite a lot during the last twenty four hours," I said, referring to the stab wound that Agni had taken a look earlier.
"Great!" she replied, pulling up a map, laying it out on the table.
"Okay, So as a final destination you all will next have to travel here," Agni replied pointing to a place in the world map.
I squinted a little, trying to identify what she was pointing at under the dim lighting of the room.
"Oh my goodness! We're going to Italy!?" Lana asked, glancing up at us expectantly, nearly squealing in excitement.
"I've always wanted to go there! That place is Amazing!!"
"And dangerous," Ramon replied, a grim expression settling onto his face.
"You never know what you could face, that is the literal birthplace of the hunters! People that are out to kill you," Ramon's voice grew somber the more he spoke.
I looked at Arav who had a gloomy expression on his face.
"I am aware of that. But it has to happen where it started two thousand years ago. Those were the instructions given."
"If you're careful enough you will be able to evade the hunters. Maybe we could create a disguise," Agni suggested.
"That is highly unlikely. They keep the best of the best in Italy. Excellent fighters. Excellent trackers. They especially guard the ruins. They guard the ruins of the house day and night." Arav retorted.
"Even if we were able to get in, it's still too dangerous. The hunters will be the least of her worries," Ramon gestured to me.
"Hello, I'm here, not invisible. If I haven't been clear earlier, I make decisions for myself. What's going on? Can anyone fill us in?" I asked, gesturing to Lana and I.
Ramon exhaled, focusing on the two of us, arms crossed.
"The next and final place we have to visit is Italy. It's dangerous enough with just the hunters. The ruins of the...house... in which our family lived two thousand years ago. It still exist, obscured from tourists, locals and archeologists but it's still there. The location of the ruins are well guarded secrets, the hunters are around the place all the time. The ruins, they have a tie to our souls. Yours and mine, y'know, cause we lived there. A few years ago I was lucky enough to stumble across the place and find the ruins. They gave me back my memories, everything that happened all those millennia ago-"
"Isn't that a good thing? Getting back memories I mean," Lana suddenly popped a question.
If possible, Ramon's expression grew darker.
"The sudden rush of all those memories, it could harm you. Overwhelm you. It's too risky. You could mix up reality and history."
"So you basically mean a person could fall into insanity," Isha spoke up, surprising all of us.
She'd been so motionless and quiet that I'd forgotten she was next to me.
"Well, it depends. The initial shock could be overwhelming, then it takes a while to get used to it and sort everything out. It took me a few years to get used to. What I'm saying is that I don't want you to go through it. When I got those memories back I was not a student. I had a job, and was financially stable. But you have a whole future ahead of you. You have to graduate, go to university and get a good job. Those memories still haunt me to this day, I don't want you going through that, you don't need that additional stress," Ramon's voice was directed at me.
I let out a breath, closing my eyes, feeling the weight of his words settling in.
If I didn't handle this well I might fall to insanity.
But if I don't do this both Lana's parents and my mother will die and this plague could spread.
It could affect many more people than now. It could kill billions and their blood will be on my hands.
I can't let this scare me.
It'll be hard but I'll have to face it. We didn't come this far for me to back down.
We sacrificed way too much for this to go down the drain.
"I'll take my chances," I said, meeting Ramon's stern gaze with a steely look of my own. "It'll be risky but we came way too far for me to just give up."
A few moments of silence passed.
"Can we just get on with what we're discussing and stop all the sappy speeches?" Isha broke off the silence with a hint of irritation in her voice.
Arav and Agni shot her a scolding look.
"She's right, so anyway, how are we supposed to get in if this place is guarded all the time?" I quickly asked, hoping to disperse the tension building up in the room.
Arav gave a nod, concentrating on the map.
He pointed to somewhere north of Italy.
"This is the area we need to go to, Cansiglio forest. The ruins are so well shrouded that it's highly unlikely to stumble across the place randomly."
"Considering the forest as our final destination it'll be a two hour car ride from Venice to Cansiglio. That'll be good enough, we need to be at the ruins by midnight," Ramon observed.
"I've checked the borders and the guards the hunters have put in place around the area. They change posts exactly at 11 pm, the duration varies from 5- 10 minutes. If you could penetrate through their barriers it'll be during that time."
"I'll send a SWAT team with you."
"We don't need a SWAT team."
"You guys have a SWAT team?" I asked, mildly surprised.
Agni focused on my question, purposefully ignoring Arav's comment.
"Yeah, this is a kingdom isn't it?" Agni asked, a light smile splayed across her lips.
"If we are to get this done properly with less obstructions we'll at least have to leave by tomorrow evening. That way we will have enough time to get there before the full moon. Not to mention we will have to find a place to rest, and plan everything out. We can't afford to be affected by jet lag when we reach Cansiglio," Arav replied.
"I'll handle that, I can arrange all the accommodation and stuff, don't worry about that," Ramon answered.
Arav shot Ramon a look that clearly read 'are you sure?'.
Shaking his head, Ramon looked up at us. "Don't worry, I know my way around Italy, for goodness sake I grew up there! Trust me, I'll handle all that, y'all worry about the other stuff," We nodded.
A few moments passed in silence as we all stared at the map, each of us in our own worlds.
"But why?" Lana spoke up, disrupting the silence.
"Why do they protect this place so much? What's so worth with these ruins that the others don't have?"
"They contain a lot of things. Ancient books, scriptures. Sacred texts with antidotes. Most things that people don't know that exist nowadays, things that could cause a huge difference in many industries," Ramon answered.
"But can't they just hide it in a vault or something?"
"They also have various herbal plants growing there, some that are in the brink of extinction, it's basically a paradise of hidden treasures. A healer's dreamland," Ramon replied, "the hunters don't want this to be discovered by other people, so they guard the area and try to buy the land around it."
"But why would they be interested in all these antidotes and herbs? Why would they hide it from the rest of the world?"
"Hiding all these recipes and herbs is what keeps them on top of the market."
"What?" Lana's tone reflected my confusion.
I looked at Ramon confused.
"What do you mean market?"
"Where do you think they get all their recipes for their 'miracle medicine'?" I stared at my brother, dumbstruck.
"Guaritore? As in the pharmaceutical company? The company that has some of the best but also the most expensive medication?? Hold up.... A whole company is determined to kill me?" I asked, not believing what I just heard.
"Did you really think the hunters were some mindless idiots who had nothing to do in their spare time? They want you so that they could use you as a lab rat!" Ramon looked at me sternly.
"If everyone knew how to make their medicine then the quality would go down cause it would be too common. Not even their own scientists know all the recipes. The secrets are passed on in the main lines of their family. Oldest child to oldest child. They keep the rest of the family in the dark. They're too ambitious. They protect the secrets more than their own family."
"Wait, so if they keep all of this secret then how did you know all about this?" Lana asked.
Ramon let out a sigh, resting his hands on the table, looking down at the map.
"I was their Chief Scientific Officer. When I first joined I thought I was helping a good cause, and I was. But I was suspicious as to what they had to do so much research on. Later on I was actually allowed to visit the ruins and that was when I regained my memories. It might have not been that nice of me but I later broke into their vaults and found out they were aiming to find you. I remembered what they did to you last time so I didn't want to make the same mistake again, that was why I came looking for you. My first impression of Atalanta was that she was a spy for them. Sorry for misunderstanding Atalanta."
"It's fine, but why would you-" Lana's question was cut off with the door opening.
Ranvir walked on.
"There you all are! I was looking everywhere for you all," Ranvir walked over to Agni pecking her on the forehead.
He turned to Isha and Arav.
"Father wanted to talk to you two in his room. Lana and Alessa, Aunt Nanda wanted to talk with y'all, she's outside and Ramon, I was hoping to show you our tranquilizers."
"You all go on, I need to talk with Agni. Same to you Isha, I will join you and father," Arav replied, his voice changing to a stern tone in the end as he shot Isha a warning look.
We all walked out quietly leaving Arav and Agni to talk, parting our ways to go where we were needed.
As I walked with Lana I couldn't help but think what Lana was going to ask.
I had a very good idea on what it was.
Why would Ramon think that Lana was a spy?
Now we know exactly why the hunters are after Alessa and we know how Ramon is involved in this mess. Why do you think Ramon thought that Lana was a spy? Leave your thoughts in the comments :)
Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
Don'f forget to vote!!
-Liliana
Edited: 09/08/2022